With the restoration of postpaid cellular services in Kashmir after a gap of 70 days on October 14, the Kashmir based subscribers are paying bills from outside the region to see their phones functional again. In Kashmir, no recharge facility is available in the wake of communication gag.According to wire news service— Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the clampdown of Internet services in Kashmir has left most of the recharge outlets non-operational leaving most of the subscribers in a state of despair to restore their postpaid numbers after clearing the pending bills.Many subscribers have appealed to the concerned authorities to restore the internet services in order to ease out the sufferings. The ongoing internet gag has forced most of the subscribers to pay extra charges on their bills just to get their services restored after a span of 70 days of communication gag.The telecom operators has barred most of the numbers due to the non-payment of pending bills due to which the subscribers are moving from pillar to post to get their dues cleared and services restored.
Shafiq Ahmad, a postpaid subscriber told KNO, "My Jio number is still barred due to the non-payment of bill and unfortunately I am not able to find any recharge outlet operational here, where I can deposit my bill to get the services restored on my number." He said that he contacted his friend who is working in Delhi and asked him to deposit the bill at earliest. He further added that, “I was left with no option to recharge my number from outside the valley as the unavailability of recharge facility and suspension of services on the other side bothered me a lot as even after 75 days of communication gag, I am still not able to contact my friends and relatives."Adil Ahmad, a recharge vendor based in Srinagar, “Due to the suspension of internet services in valley we are left with no other option to close our business establishments, due to the ongoing internet gag no transaction can be processed from Kashmir.”He said that, the suspension of internet services in Kashmir region even after a period of over two months has devastated them economically and the ongoing gag has forced many people like him to close their outlets. He further added," People are now getting their bills paid from outside the valley by paying extra charges and only those are able to pay who have any of their friends or family working outside Kashmir.” (KNO)